ore I have the pleasure of wishing you
a very good night," and he turned toward the door.

De Lacy laughed scornfully.

"Not so fast, my lord," he said. "You will have to bear with my poor
company for a space. The King is at Lincoln."

"What has that to do with me? . . . Stand aside, fellow," as Dauvrey
barred the way.

For answer the squire drew dagger and the man-at-arms laid a heavy hand
on Darby's shoulder. It was useless to try bare fists against such
odds and he wheeled about.

"What means this fresh outrage?" he demanded.

"It means that you are my prisoner."

"Your prisoner! And wherefore?"

"As the abductor of the Countess of Clare."

Darby held up his hands in amazement. "Are you clean daft?" he
exclaimed.

"It is useless, my lord, longer to play the innocent," said Aymer.
"Either confess what has been done with the Countess or to the King you
go straightway."

Darby shrugged his shoulders. "Since you have the rogues to obey you
and I have not the information you desire, it must be to the King," he
said. "And the more haste you use to reach him the quicker will come
my time to even scores with you," and he sat down and began to brush
the dirt from his garments.

De Lacy eyed him in stern silence, his resentment growing fiercer as he
held it in restraint; while the squire, in equal anger, kept shooting
his dagger back and forth in its sheath as if impatient to use it. And
but for the sake of the information Darby could furnish as to Beatrix,
the dagger might have been suffered to do its work and De Lacy raise no
hand to stay it. Nay, rather, would he have stood by and watched it
strike home with grim satisfaction.

Presently Darby had finished with his clothes and glancing up met De
Lacy's eyes. A taunting smile came to his lips and he began to whistle
softly to himself. It was De Lacy who spoke first.

"I should like to know," said he, "how one of your craftiness could be
so stupid as to carry off the Countess of Clare? What possible profit
could you think to gain?"

Darby did not answer at once. When he did, it was with a sneer.

"Methinks, good sir," he said, "you are too stupid to appreciate that
you have, yourself, unwittingly advanced the best proof of my
innocence. Fools, you know, sometimes speak truth."

"Aye, but even a fool would know that Flat-Nose and you were together
in yonder upper room. Can you explain that, my dear lord?"

Darby laughed. "Naught easier,